ck's account of the first few days...

Hey... check out my blog for my ramblings about the first few days in Thailand. I am home now and will add some installments asap but there's much packing to do, moving sucks. http://cklaff.blogspot.com/

Grand Palace - 3

A nice shot of Caryn and H rom when we walked into the grounds surrounding the Grand Palace...
These incredible ornate paintings were all over the place. You could find them lining every wall and most ceilings in almost every temple/room/on every wall. They were amazing, with tons of stories around each one. Here is an example that I thought showed one pretty well..
I have been told many many times that one thing in the world I need to se some day is Angkor Wat. It's in Cambodia and apparently is one of tose "most amazing things ever" to see in person. THey have a model of the whole thing here at the Grand Palace.. you can't tell from this shot.. but this model was HUGE. If we placed ourselves on it.. it appeared like it would have taken a few hours just to walk the circumference. If only there were diving in cambodia.. as there isn't.. I will get there.. just not sure when. (There was talk of Giles and Charlotte going to see it after their trip to Chang Mai.. we'll see when they get back if they made it!
I like elephants..
Everyone likes elephants..
Thwere were elephants all over the place.. here are some :)
(Sorry I had nothing better to say) 

Grand Palace - 2

All over the place were statues of all sorts and types. Apparently lots of them were gifts from other countries.. here are some neat examples..

This first set was bright gold leading to the enterance to one of the temples...


These two were holding up a huge pyramid of gold, alongside a number of others stretching all the way around the entire base.

This reminded me of the dog from Ghost Busters.. in Stone.. hmm.. well.. at least that's what I thought at the time!
There were many many statues like this one all over the grounds. They guarded gates to different sections.. Buddha's that were on top of pedestals.. you name it.. you could find guys like this, 

Grand Palace - 1

So we went to the grand palace.. there was tons to see here.. so this will likely be in a few parts..
First.. when you walk in the gate, this is the view on your left.. it's pretty neat. plus as you walk in.. they are checking your clothing.. no sleeveless shirts.. and no shorts.. must be long pants/long skirts and short sleeves at least.. for both genders.. if you don't have the right stuff you can rent it.. they even had pants large enough for Giles!














This is a good example of the "skyline" here..
Lots of glittering gold and spires..
One of the main things here is the Emerald Buddha.. you are not allowed to take photos inside the temple.. so this was the best I could do.. however it was pretty impressive in person. Apparently they found it and a piece of plaster fell off.. then they realized that inside the plaster was all jade.. pretty cool. Three times a year the King himself comes to change the dressing on the Buddha in a big ceremony.. pretty awesome. 

Long Boats..

So.. a long boat.
What it is is just a boat.. with a giant car engine strapped on top of the back of the boat and a propellor attached at the other end. Amazingly simple.. amazingly loud.













As you can see.. these engines are NOT small.. and we noticed that most had turbo's on them too..

 

Water taxi to the Grand Palace

Henry Caryn and I woke up bright and early and decided to take a water taxi through the back water ways to the Grand palace. Here are some shots from that trip:
Caryn and H in the middle of the long boat.. with our driver in the background.















Shots of people's homes on the sides of the water ways..


 

Reclining Buddha

After Ultimate, Dave, Giles, Charlotte and I traveled to the grand palace.. as only Dave went in at this time.. I'll post shots of that soon.. but after that, Dave and I went to see the reclining Buddha.. and man.. it was incredible. As you can see from the shot with Dave in it.. this thing is big.. and gleaming gold. and amazingly long.. 46 Meters long and 15 meters high.. absolutely huge. The rest of the grounds were amazing to look at as well.. but I'll link to some of those photos a wee bit later on. One note that was interesting.. this random chick from canada bumped into us when were we were walking towards here.. and she ended up joining us for our entire walk around the grounds at Wat Pho (where the reclining Buddha is). Spe spent maybe 3 hours with us before Dave and I took off in a taxi back to the hotel.. and we never got her name. (Ok.. took off is a bad way to put it.. we were in the taxi for an hour before we had gone 1KM.. the King had closed some streets.. that plus rush hour pretty much stopped our travel completely.. but we finally made it)

Ultimate in Bagkok

So, we made plans to play some ultimate in Bangkok.. it took us FOREVER to get to the fields due to some incorrect advice from hotel bell boy. (They told the cab to go to the wrong fields.. ones about 30 minutes past the actual fields..) When we finally got there.. they were playing 6's and looked pretty good.. so we joined in. Had a great time.. all great people.. played on an army base.. which was neat. We then scrimmaged the thai folks.. but due to the heat and some.. err.. height issues.. we fell by 2 or three points to them. Here are some shots from there:
On the line:





Hanging on the sideline, You can see army folks in training behind us..










Henry getting fouled.. of course.. he chose not to call it..














All in all.. tons of fun! 

Brief Update

So.. I am home now.
Henry and others (Giles, Caryn, Christina, Charlotte) are all trekking in Chang Mai. I will be placing all of my pictures online shortly.. but figured I would give a quick rundown of what has happened since the Dive Trip (expect longer entries soon on all of these topics.. with pictures!)
Flew to Bangkok.. Hotel was awesome..
Played ultimate with the Bangkok Group
Saw the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha
Took a Water taxi through the back-water ways of Bangkok.
Hung out multiple nights at the Night Bazaar (including the first night involving a 3Liter Beer dispenser that Dave, Charlotte, Giles and I dispensed with)
Shopped/Bartered all over the place..
HUGE Weekend market (if you can't find it/buy it there.. it probably doesn't exist)
Saw a movie..
Ate LOTS of meat on a stick.
Went to a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms..
Went to "Ancient City" (this will be a blog entry in of itself once the pictures are up.. as it was hysterical)
Bought a custom tailored suit
and much much more...
So that's what you have to look forward to in the next few days..
Thanks!

Update after 3 days aborad liveaboard

Where to start!
Well. w had dinner the day we got on the liveaboard.. H really wanted hotpot, so we had that at an M+K:









Then we got on the boat.. it is an awesome boat.. great staff.. great food.. great everything.. the owner (or part owner) Duke is awesome.. it's like one bi family wher they will do anything to make your trip better.
The sea life has been incredible.. we'll be uploading lots of underwater shots later when we get home.. but the best part (and for those that wanted to come but didn't.. this is mainly to make you feel bad... we saw a WHALE SHARK.. very rare to see one.. and we got to snorkle with one. For those that don't know.. a whale shark is the largest fish in the sea. We saw a juvenile.. but as you'll be see in these pics.. still pretty darn big.. and an incredibl experience to see one:


Pretty awesome time.. now we get to hop back on the boat for more days.. and we can't wait.. this is the best way to dive.. just eat, dive, eat, dive, nap, dive, nap, dive, eat, sleep repeat. Pretty awesome.. tons of space to lie under the stars to sleep or in your room.. just awesome.
The folk on the boat are great too.. we had 4 spainiards who were a blast.. always ready with a joke.. just great folks.. my roomate is a man from Belgium.. and he fits in with us great as well.. This next trip will include Dave Lott.. and 10 folks from Hong Kong.. so we'll see how it goes.
I'll try to post again soon!!!!

Time to head to the liveaboard!

Today we move from the hotel to the Liveaboard. They are picking us up at 5, and we have dinner on the boat.. then wake up somewhere and dive.
Yesterday was a lazy day.. hung by the pool till well after noon.. went into town.. checked out lots of dive shops, and people watched.. tried to find sunglasses for Charlotte.. we failed.. but we found her a bathing suit.. while Mike and H got a foot massage. (My phrase.. anyone who would actually touch MY feet.. is not someone I would want touching my feet) But they loved it.
After that we cam eback.. threw around in the ocean for like 2 hours heckling one another and making sure to stay in the ocean until well after dark.. just becasue (the weather was warm the whole time.. oh and by the way.. the ocean is 85 degrees.. ridiculously warm.. )
Ok.. that's enough for now.. we don't know if we'll have any internet on/near the boat.. but we'll try to update sometime soon.. and if we get a chance.. we'll post some more pictures (I was up at 6 this AM taking some sunrise shots)
Thanks for reading!

Rob's Take on day 1 and 2!

So.. I'll see if I can embelish H's story...
Day 1)
I was sitting across from H when the alleged guy stole his wallet. It did look picture perfect.. he reached around.. distracted Henry (and the rest of us watching) then bumbped him flawlessly. Luckily it was nothing.. but I did see how easy it would be to at least get a start in that field.
Long taxi ride to the hotel.. TONS of moped stores.. these folks must change scooters as often as we change pants.
Played mini golf.. BUT.. Mike won, Rob came in second, H came in last.. (no dollar won here) THOUGH I will say that H got a very impressive hole in one. Later on he and I went and played pool.. that's where he won a dollar on a sick shot. Also.. little pool hall was perfect for tv watching too.. got to watch Premier League football.. pretty awesome.
Collapsed into bed.. exhausted.
Henry woke Mike and I up too early.. I skipped breakfast..
We went for a Dive.. as H said some good stuff... Lots of clown fish and anenomes (i.e. WE FOUND NEMO) a small ray that was really cool.. and a kick ass cuttle fish, among other interesting fish.
Went into town.. figured out where to get a new battery for my dive computer.. kick ass lunch.. came back. met charlotte.
Threw around on the beach (I wouldn't call it ulty.. one of the guys had only played 5 times) that said.. great guys.. good conversations good times.
Ok.. enough typing, internet is EXPENSIVE here..
will blog more later!

Bangkok!

Well, we made it to bangkok.. LOTS of time in a cramped old airplane with hundreds ofo other cramped folks.. but whatever.. we are here. We had sushi in tokyo..got here at midnight.. and found a tiny airport restaurant to eat in.. Great food.. we all had dinner. and henry of course had desert.. and for three of us, with thai iced teas and food and h's desert.. total = equiv of 15 bucks. kick ass.
now it's 4 am and we are waiting for our 7 am flight to phiket.. luckily found a tiny internet kiosk... its like 35 cents for 10 minutes... kick ass.. this whole cheap vacation thing will rule.
Anything funny... hmm.. other than Henry not wanting to unrecline so this poor little lady could sit behind him.. not much else interesting yet.. but wanted folks to know we made it thailand.. and our luggage did too :)
Hopefully blogging next from a beach in Phuket!

Leaving tomorrow!

Tomorrow Morning at 4:15 AM a cab is picking up Mike, Henry and I to start off our 36 hour transit to Phuket..

Now that we have all purchased tons of dive gear, plane tickets, live aboard reservations, hotel reservations and the like.. It's time for it to finally get started. (Heck, we already have 3 different pick up games scheduled.. one beach two grass.. so far)

Wish us luck, and we'll do what we can to keep this site updated with pictures and silly stories (probably mostly me being made fun of in some way.. but still.. should be enjoyable!)